1. Field of the Invention
The invention broadly relates to biological tissue cutting devices.
2. Prior Art
Biological tissues for surgical pathology must be cut for chemical processing and embedding in paraffin. The cut tissues must be less than the inside dimensions of a standardized processing cassette which receives the tissues. The most commonly used tool is a hand tool such as a scalpel, knife, or razor blade, but it results in pieces with inconsistent dimensions. The thickness of the tissues directly affect the fixation rate in a fixative, the first step in the chemical processing. The quality of the fixation directly affects many of the downstream diagnostic tests. Therefore, tissue pieces with different thicknesses have different qualities of fixation that affect diagnostic testing.
There are tissue slicing instruments for making extremely thin slices measured in micrometers or even nanometers. These instruments cut only one slice at a time. The extreme thinness of their cuts require hardening the tissue by freezing or fixation in a rigid medium, such as paraffin. They are not suitable for cutting thicker slices, or cutting soft tissue.